The Appalachian
TheAppalachianOnline.com
Vol. 86 No. 16
Freedom of speech?
Senior News Reporter
Madelyn Rindal | The Appalachian
‘F--k gays,’ other slurs painted over LGBT message in expression tunnel Lifestyles Editor
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ppalachian State University police were notified of an offensive message written over the LGBT Center’s National Coming Out Day rainbow stripes on the walls of the free expression tunnel on River Street Monday. “At first, I only saw the words above the tunnel and I couldn’t decide if someone had just written ‘Gay, Gay, Gay’ and then I saw ‘F—k Gays,’” said Mark Rasdorf, LGBT Center graduate assistant. Rasdorf noticed the message, which was spray-painted on the tunnel closest to Stadium Drive, while walking to his car Monday evening. Rasdorf said he contacted campus police shortly after and that an officer was at the tunnel within five minutes of the call. “He took pictures, but I don’t think he took a picture of the left side of the tunnel,” Rasdorf said.
Faculty pass motion to look over Gen. Ed. by KELLI STRAKA
ASU police responded to a report of anti-gay slurs written in the expression tunnel Monday afternoon. The incident is currently under investigation.
by MICHAEL BRAGG
Thursday, October 27, 2011
“I think there was something that ended in ‘f-gs,’ but someone had painted over part of it and he didn’t feel the need to take a picture of that – which is fine, because it’s not important to speculate what had been there.” The Appalachian Physical Plant has been contacted and will cover the offensive messages soon, said Lt. Casey Mitchell of university police. Since the slur was written on the free expression tunnel it is not considered a hate crime, Mitchell said. “If this were graffiti, then it would be a hate crime, but this is the free speech tunnel so it is not graffiti,” he said. Mitchell said that if those involved are found during an investigation, the message could be constituted as “fighting words.” “If we find out who it is, we can send them to student conduct,” Mitchell said. Dean of Students J.J. Brown said he was “saddened” by the
message on the tunnel. “Well, it certainly has a bias,” Brown said. “This language was targeted right over their colors.” On Monday, Oct. 17, one week before the incident was reported, North Carolina State University’s GLBT Center experienced a similar event. The center’s door was vandalized with the words ‘F-gs,’ ‘Burn’ and ‘Die.’ “We were outraged and in disbelief,” said Justine Hollingshead, director of the N.C. State GLBT Center. Hollingshead said N.C. State’s free expression tunnels have been painted with derogatory messages about the LGBT community in the past. “It is unfortunate, hateful and unwanted, but it is not hate speech,” she said. Unlike writings in the free expression tunnels, the defacing of the N.C. State GLBT Center was labeled as hateful speech and threatening. Tommy Wrenn, sophomore
public relations major and LGBT Center volunteer, said he agrees with the rights of free speech despite the negative message displayed in the tunnel. “I can’t really say much,” Wrenn said. “It is free expression. We do kind of have to accept that.” Wrenn said he prefers to focus on the events the LGBT Center has worked to plan and promote, like “Gay? Fine by Me,” National Coming Out Day and the free HIV testing on campus this week. “I think when I compare the event of National Coming Out Day and how successful it was to just this one comment someone made on the tunnel, I’m more happy to look at the positives of that day than just one little incident,” he said. Rasdorf said the LGBT Center is ready to move past the message. “I think the healthiest thing for us to do is to just keep doing our good work,” he said.
SGA supports 24/5 library service during 2011 exams by ANNE BUIE Senior News Reporter
The Student Government Association (SGA) passed a bill Tuesday that supports bringing back Belk Library’s 24/5 service during exam week for the fall 2011 semester. In order to accommodate the 24/5 service, SGA proposed that the atrium and the Wired Scholar close at 2 a.m. for the remainder of the semester. “This bill being passed is a step in the right direction,” said Alex McPherson, SGA director of academic affairs. McPherson co-sponsored the bill with the Graduate Student Association Senate (GSAS). Normally, GSAS doesn’t get involved with the SGA’s bills, but McPherson said she saw the benefits of combining forces. “The library is something that affects all students, whereas things like on campus housing doesn’t affect grad students,” McPherson said. “I felt that in order for administration, in order for the library to take this more seriously, I felt that it was necessary to have the graduate school association in on this conversation.” Joe Gill, president of GSAS, said he also saw the benefits of working with the SGA as a “unified voice.” “After discussing the issue with the graduate student senate, we came to the conclusion that most graduate students would prefer to have the library open 24/5 during finals week,” he said. McPherson also worked in conjunction with library personnel while writing the bill. “They have been really, really open to having these conversations with us,” McPherson said of the library staff. “They’re really open to our ideas, our suggestions. They’re completely on board with doing whatever is best for the students.” Though SGA and the library liked the idea, Ken Johnson, coordinator of learning and research services for the library, said he is unsure if the budget will allow for the change to take place. “I am always supportive of student efforts centered around using the library for study and research,” Johnson said. “I hope that the library can reopen 24/5 near finals, but we still do not know our final budget figures.” Before writing the bill, McPherson had to prove to administrators that students genuinely supported its goals. “They thought it was an interesting idea but they weren’t supporting it entirely,” she said. “They weren’t saying yes or no. We wanted to show them that students supported this.” SGA-distributed surveys showed that 97 percent of students “would rather have the increase in exam time,” according to the bill. A referendum will be administered to the student body through Appalnet, but a date has not yet been decided, McPherson said.
LIBRARY HOUR STUDENT RESPONSES “I think it would be more beneficial to use the whole library during finals week. It would be a better idea to go ahead and close the atrium to benefit the whole ASU community.”
Will Dulin, senior history major “I was in there at all hours last semester when it was open and sometimes there were only five people there, so I think that keeping it open during finals week would be more beneficial to the student population.”
Rachel White, senior advertising major “Not many people use the library after 2 a. m. during the regular semester anyway, so more people would benefit from having it open during finals, and the atrium is not that large of a space anyway.”
Matthew Gillis, senior criminal justice major “Though I disagree with not having the library open 24 hours during the school year, I think, speaking on behalf of the student body, we would be able to sacrifice atrium hours for having the library open 24 hours during exams when studying is most crucial.”
Justin Sumwalt, senior marketing and economics major
As part of the university’s process to revise the General Education (GE) curriculum, Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Lori Gonzalez will establish an advisory board to address concerns raised by faculty. The GE Review Task Force identified six main areas of concern from faculty feedback attained during an information gathering process in fall of 2010, which the Faculty Senate then confirmed. “We think it’s time to stop gathering information and start solution solving,” Jill Ehnenn, chair of Faculty Senate and associate professor of English, said. The six areas of concern identified were flexibility, advising complexity, transfer credit, First Year Seminar, the course approval process and administrative structure. Gonzalez will take the GE Review Task Force’s recommendations to frame, address and solve concerns they identified. Freshman computer science major Anthony Lombardo said he thinks classes in the GE curriculum lack relevance for students’ individual major choices. “I feel that after a certain point you have to do your major, which is more interesting and I’d rather do that,” Lombardo said. “ If you’re going to be forced to take classes, they might as well make it something applicable to everyone – not just one field.” The reason behind the changing GE curriculum was to focus more on goals and outcomes rather than filling in requirements, GE Director Paulette Marty said. “So instead of, ‘it’s just good for you to know something about music,’ it’s ‘how can music help you develop these skills that you’re going to be able to use throughout the rest of your life,’” Marty said.
Flexibility “Any structured curriculum limits student flexibility,” Marty said. “The question then becomes, ‘what are the goals of the curriculum and then how well is the curriculum succeeding at achieving those goals?” Marty said that if the goals are worth it and the structure helps students achieve those goals, it’s a good curriculum. “I believe the way the curriculum is structured can help students achieve those goals,” Marty said. “And I think we need to keep working to realize the potential of the curriculum.”
Advising Complexity “The newness of the curriculum, it’s so different than the old curriculum that I think it’s difficult for advisors to wrap their minds around,” Marty said. In order to help faculty advisors, advising workshops have been offered, as well as contact information for the GE office.
Transfer Credit “We have made big strides in the past year in transfer credit policies and procedures,” Marty said. The GE Council recently established the Office of Transfer Articulation, which went online last year. Every semester they grant transfer credit for GE courses. They’ve also created new policies and procedures. Additionally, the GE Council sent a request to Academic Policies and Procedure for out-of-state associate degrees to evaluate whether they can get credit for completing GE curriculum. They are also working on a policy to exempt transfer students from the First Year Seminar.
First Year Seminar Faculty criticized First Year Seminar classes for being too easy. “It’s helping with retention and I honestly think that part of the criticism with First Year Seminar that’s happening right now is people aren’t clear that First Year Seminar is different from Freshman Seminar,” Marty said. According to Marty, compared to the Freshman Seminar, First Year Seminar is more academically rigorous and a very different class. “We’re working now to try and get the message out there about what this First Year Seminar is and what it’s doing,” Marty said.
Course Approval Process The GE curriculum approval process was rushed due to impending budget cuts, leaving faculty confused, Marty said. “Once that crazy get-everything-proposed thing was over, this office codified things and got it all straightened out and figured out,” Marty said. Early last fall, the proposal forms were updated and streamlined onto one website.
Administrative Structure The Review Task Force recommendation was for the GE Council to move from the University College into the College of Arts and Sciences, Marty said.
Photo Illustration | Nathan Cullitan
Since the current GE curriculum is fairly new, Marty said it is doing well, even with the six areas of concern. “I feel good about where we are, actually,” Marty said. “I think there are people on campus who don’t feel like it’s in a place that they’re happy with, but looking at the big picture from my perspective, I think it’s going quite well.”